Inside The Bills

Buffalo’s roster currently numbers 88 players, which includes Chris Hairston on Active PUP, and Jairus Byrd. Even though Byrd is unsigned he counts toward the team’s roster total once he’s tendered. That means there are two roster vacancies that could be filled with a maximum roster of 90 permitted this time of year. Bills GM Doug Whaley and head coach Doug Marrone however, prefer not to make use of those vacancies at this point.

Appearing on the John Murphy Show, Whaley explained their reasoning behind leaving a couple of roster spots open.

“As of now unless somebody gets released or something else comes up we’re going to stand pat,” said Whaley. “Our philosophy talking to coach Marrone, with training camp being so rigorous you’d like to have some leeway of maybe one or two rosters spots so if someone goes down you don’t have to rob Peter to pay Paul. So you don’t have to take a position and decrease their numbers to add to another position. That helps with us with not having to put stress on other positions, which could in turn cause more injuries.”

The open roster spot also streamlines the process of signing a player that suddenly becomes available that they might covet. Buffalo doesn’t have to go to the trouble of moving one player off the roster to make room for another.